Barking and Dagenham Citizens is a borough-wide community alliance of local organisations. We are one part of the wider Citizens UK network working with communities across the UK for the common good.

We are fundraising in the borough to support our organisations in delivering front line responses to coronavirus. Last year we raised £5k for food parcels, hardship funds, and basic internet and IT equipment and received match funding to reach a target of £10k. Here are some of the initiatives we managed to achieve with your donations following the first lockdown in Barking and Dagenham:

• Mums on a Mission supported over 100 single parent households with emergency food packages
• On the Rock Ministries provided £6,000 worth of emergency food packages to families through their football outreach project on the Marks Gate Estate
• Secured IT equipment to enable families to access online education and reduce isolation during the pandemic

There are still many families in our local organisations that need more laptops for students dong e-learning from home. We are aiming to raise £1,000 to provide IT equipment for local school children to access online education and stay connected during the latest lockdown.

Can you help us? Types of support we need:

• Financial donations to buy new laptops/tablets for students
• Second hand laptops and tablet donations. These must be in good condition and be Microsoft Teams compatible.
• Support from local businesses to buy IT equipment for students